Nothing brings to mind so many vividly sensate memories like the red Solo cup. Though humble by design, the Solo cup evokes a blend of sights, sounds, and odors familiar to just about any collegiate partygoer. In fact, one might suppose that if Andy Warhol were in a frat today, the iconic piece of American ephemera would likely go down as our generation’s Campbell’s Soup. Better yet, leave it to a college student.

Enter one inspired partier. “It just occurred to me one morning that I should start cutting through plastic cups,” recalls Wesley Yip, CC’12. Before long, his sublime realization helped him transform his Watt living room’s blank walls Held up mostly by office-grade adhesives, the unmistakable red plastic looms over the rest of his two-bedroom suite. At close inspection, the acute angularity of its features becomes more visible. It was still broad daylight outside when I visited, and the light casts faint red shadows.

“In a way, it sort of reminds me of cups bobbing in the water after a pool party,” Wesley somberly reflects. With September late in bloom, this is a scene familiar yet just beyond the grasp of recent memory. Staring back at the wall, I feel my senses numbed by the artificiality of it all. Maybe this is what it feels like to graduate.